Just a month back we saw the WannaCry attack and companies are still getting affected; this shows they have not taken the right precautions yet: Sanjay Katkar, MD, Quick Heal

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Updated: Jun 28, 2017, 10.09 AM IST

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"Organisations where PCs are constantly on have to be extra careful as the malware can call up the banks on the employees' behalf", said Katkar.

Post WannaCry, as another big malware attack ripples across the world, specially targeting official business organisations, Sanjay Katkar, CTO & MD, Quick Heal shares with ET Now, his views regarding the occurrence and prevention of such cyber attacks. Edited Excerpts:

Please highlight the nature and seriousness of this virus which has crippled a lot of companies?

Yes, this a massive attack that is happening. We have been seeing the culprits are trying to attack and obtain data from the comparatively newer organisations. They have been using the same Eternal Blue vulnerability to try to become more successful with each attempt.

Would you say this is similar to the WannaCry attack and which companies are more susceptible on the Indian shores to this Ransomware?

Ransomwares do not target any particular verticals. But I would say that those computers which are online are going to get more affected if they are not well protected. So any computer that is online and there are numerous organisations where the PCs are constantly on, have to be very careful because if the protection is not enough this virus will definitely start affecting the PCs, it can also call bankers on the behalf of the individuals.

What about the protection products against these viruses, do you think the companies are equipped with handling such impact?

Yes, but the sense it has to be the latest updated version; if somebody is not updated to the latest anti-virus suit, it might affect them eventually. That is the situation and the operating system patch for WannaCry is the same patch they're using for this thing and people have already patched it.

How does this impact you and how big a potential could this be for companies like yours like Quick Heal?

The situation is very bad because we have to handle so many calls releasing updates on time for the latest thing and keeping on educating the users about the same. At the same time we do see people becoming aware there is a growing awareness these days that is definitely a positive impact but at the same time security awareness sense needs to be improved because even though just a month back we saw the big attack and still companies are getting affected which means they have not taken the right precautions yet.

Would you have any back of the envelope calculation with the first few initial calls that you are getting regarding this Ransomware as to how big a business potential could this be?

That cannot be judged right now because we have just started seeing that people are now coming to office and seeing this attack kind of situation and then they start calling us, so it is too early to comment on it.